The Green Room

Greg B. writes:

I noticed a few misconceptions about bleach on your blog. As a scientist from Clorox, I thought it would be helpful to clarify a few points:

First, I wanted to emphasize the importance of disinfecting. Using a solution of white vinegar and baking soda cannot provide the same disinfecting qualities of an EPA registered disinfectant.

* For example, Clorox® Regular-Bleach prevents the spread of diseases like MRSA; the EPA recognizes bleach as an approved disinfectant that can kill this deadly virus.  See page 7 of the EPA list of approved disinfectants for MRSA.

While you appropriately note that bleach is sodium hypochlorite, you later use the term “chlorine bleach” which is actually a misnomer. It is important to make the distinction between chlorine and sodium hypochlorite, because they have entirely different chemistries. At its source, sodium hypochlorite is derived from seawater — there is no free chlorine in bleach any more than there is free chlorine in table salt (and we don’t call that “chlorine salt”).

• A report by the European Union Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks says, “…disappearance of hypochlorite is practically immediate in the natural aquatic environment,” and “…for the soil compartment, the role of hypochlorite pollution is assumed as negligible.”   http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_risk/committees/04_scher/docs/scher_o_082.pdf

Second, normal household use of bleach does not form dioxins. Additionally, dioxins are not formed during either the manufacturing of bleach or its raw materials. The conditions necessary to produce halogenated organic compounds like dioxins are not present in household bleach. Among other reasons, the pH of bleach is too high.

• The American Chemistry Council’s Web site, dioxinfacts.org provides a list of dioxin sources provided by the EPA.  Household bleach – sodium hypochlorite – is not a source.

Finally, I’d like to clarify that given the spectrum of everyday life, pediatric ingestion and exposures to bleach are not problems; nearly all pediatric household bleach exposures are managed at home, with dilution as the only treatment. Very few result in adverse effects or receive specific therapies other than decontamination.

If you would like more information about bleach, I encourage you to visit factsaboutbleach.com .

Lindsay responds:

As you can see we’re all for people making their own cleaners, which are simple, cheap, easy and work just as well as any store bought cleaner minus the toxin exposure. We don’t believe that you need the strength of bleach in the everyday home. There’s even research out there that compared two hospitals, one that used bleach and the other that did not. One year later they had the same bacterial load as one another. But again, for what most of us handle in the home we feel bleach is unnecessary.

Basically we’re in line with resources like the Cancer Smart Guide 3.0 that states "while not a carcinogen or reproductive toxin, this is another ingredient to avoid as much as possible. The chlorine used to make bleach is toxic to produce and bleach itself is acutely toxic to fish." Thanks for making that distinction between bleach and chlorine.

Time and time again I have seen in other similar literature the following, "Products containing chlorine should be avoided at all costs. Also any chemical with chlorine or anything listed as bleach should be considered unacceptable."

We will make the correction to the terminology I confused.